Mobile communication devices may include a variety of components including circuit boards, integrated circuit (IC) devices and/or System-on-Chip (SoC) devices. The components may include processing devices, user interface components, storage and other peripheral components that communicate through a shared data communication bus, which may include a serial bur or a parallel bus. General-purpose serial interfaces known in the industry include the Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C or I2C) serial bus and its derivatives and alternatives, including interfaces defined by the Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance, such as the I3C interface, the System Power Management Interface (SPMI) interface, and the Radio Frequency Front-End (RFFE) interface.
In one example, the I2C serial bus is a serial single-ended computer bus that was intended for use in connecting low-speed peripherals to a processor. Some interfaces provide multi-master busses in which two or more devices can serve as a bus master for different messages transmitted on the serial bus. In another example, the RFFE interface defines a communication interface for controlling various radio frequency (RF) front-end devices, including power amplifier (PA), low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), antenna tuners, filters, sensors, power management devices, switches, etc. These devices may be collocated in a single IC device or provided in multiple IC devices. In a mobile communications device, multiple antennas and radio transceivers may support multiple concurrent RF links.
In many instances, communication between an application processor and multiple peripherals over a common bus is limited by the slowest peripheral. In one example, I3C devices may have faster interfaces and/or processing capabilities than legacy I2C devices coupled to the same serial bus. As mobile communication devices continue to include a greater level of functionality, improved serial communication techniques are needed to optimize communication between peripherals and application processors.